大象传媒

Opening up the MP3 player market

• By Paul Crichton
• 12 Jun 07, 09:37 AM

If you are looking for a portable media player to listen to the latest Ouch! podcast, then the Creative Zen Stone is a new option for you to consider.

A number of people have posted excitedly about the Zen Stone. Kathy, on the list says: "This sounds like incredibly good news!" Elsewhere, Adrian writes on '' that,: "I'm very excited about the Creative Zen Stone." It has touched a nerve ladies and gentlemen. The blind tech kids are paying it attention.

The Zen Stone, is a stylish 1GB MP3 player and was designed to be used in situations where a bulkier MP3 player might not be ideal- down the gym, jogging, that kind of thing. To keep the size and weight down, Creative decided not to have a display screen. As a result, because the Zen Stone has buttons rather than complicated on-screen menus to navigate, it is pretty accessible out of the box to visually impaired people.

Casting the net wider, Apple produces the iPod Shuffle, which works in a similar way, without a visual menu.

But if you want something more, something with bigger memory space to store more tracks, you need to get a bit more techie.

Installing (free software, kids) onto other iPods, iRiver and other products, makes them talk. In short, it makes those menus accessible! It means you can go from a relatively simple 1 gig MP3 player up to a 30 gig storage BEAUTY! Ask for help, the community is there. It's not always the simplest thing to do.

With Zen Stone, there is no need to install scripts or software to make it accessible, or to put music files on it. Additionally, the Zen Stone is compatible with Audible, so talking books can be downloaded, too. This is something that you can't do with Rockbox and an iPod out of the box.

There is, however, a rather marvellous little bit of software you can add to iPod shuffles that allows you to bypass iTunes if you just want to listen to MP3 files. It's called rebuild.exe ... there are other little tips and tricks and bits of software out there if you start digging deeper into blind tech networks on the web. Ever seen for example? Or perhaps you'd like to subscribe to on the Freelists site.

We should note that Brian Hartgen has written some JAWS scripts to enable blind users to partially access iTunes (JAWS is a screenreader by the way, keep up)

The Zen Stone is a good addition to the list of accessible MP3 players. It sells for less than 拢30, making it a good entry-level MP3 player in a market where lots of the more accessible ones tend to cost quite a lot. I mean come on, what else can you get for 30 quid these days? All too often when the principles of universal design are applied to a gadget, you end up with something expensive and butt-ugly. But this little MP3 player should have wide appeal.

If an accessible portable media player currently tops your shopping list, then you should check out the website. There you will find a comprehensive (and I do mean comprehensive) list of accessible MP3 players, plus lots of useful information about any software you may need to get up and running.

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